Celiac disease

Celiac disease is a complex inherited digestive disorder that affects I in 100 persons worldwide. This condition involves a unique immune response within the digestive tract to gluten, a protein found in the grains of wheat, barley, rye and oats.  All persons with celiac disease, regardless of age, race or gender, are susceptible to intestinal damage when they eat food containing gluten or its derivatives. The treatment for celiac disease is a strict gluten-free diet that stops damage and allows recovery.  Probiotics and prebiotics should be incorporated into the diet to improve the quality and balance of intestinal bacteria that inhabit the colon.

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There are 36 Brain Disorders Cause by Gluten Sensitivity and Celiac Disease listed in the Gluten Free Works Treatment Guide.

How they are caused and treatment are presented. The people who follow the steps provided in the Treatment Guide DO recover…which is SO AWESOME TO SEE!!! :)

It’s all right here. Everything you need to fix yourself and maintain your health, and your brain.

Read more. >>> Gluten Free Works Treatment Guide: Symptoms Affecting the Brain

Symptoms and health problems all have a cause. (Don’t believe it if someone tells you different, no matter what letters they might have behind their name.)

Cleo and John Libonati discuss why discovering the underlying causes is crucially important to wellness. Cleo explains how something as simple as Magnesium deficiency can cause other nutrient deficiencies and lead to a host of health issues.

Ready to get healthy? REALLY healthy?

Identify your underlying causes of health issues, fix your symptoms and get well with the Gluten Free Works Treatment Guide. Discover more here.

If you are looking for something simple yet tasty to whip up for a snack – try out this “Forgotten” chocolate chip cookie recipe!

Don’t be turned off by their appearance, trust me they are SUPER tasty!

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

2 egg whites
¼ teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
1 teas. Vanilla
small 6 oz. mini chips
2 drops of food color (any color – green is festive!)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°
2. Add two egg whites into average size mixing bowl and Read More »

Gluten in bread can wreak havoc on the body. (AP Photo/S Ilic)

If you’re sensitive to gluten, a protein found in wheat, and foods made from wheat, it can make you more susceptible to herpes. Herpes, a virus that forms blisters on the skin, mouth and genitals causes what are called cold sores or fever blisters. It is highly contagious and may keep coming back, causing repetitive infections. Read More »

I met Gina through the Celiac Sprue Association, Denver Chapter 17.  She helped me get involved in volunteering at last years ‘Incredible Edible Gluten-Free Food Fair™!’  She has been part of CSA for several years and is a member of the Board.  She has a lively personality and is willing to share her thoughts with others.  I am so excited that she was willing to sit down with me and talk about her experiences of living with Type I diabetes and Celiac disease.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.  The overall message I took away, was that neither Diabetes nor Celiac disease define who Gina is, because she is so much more and has never let either one stop her from living the active life she was meant to have!

Interview

Jenn: Hi Gina! It’s great to be with you today and to have the opportunity to get to know you better.  So, tell me…how old were you when you were diagnosed with Type I diabetes?

Gina: I was 17 years old.

Jenn: And how old were you when you were diagnosed with Celiac disease? Read More »

Although it has been warm inside with all of this baking, it has been quite chilly outside for me. And so, I thought that besides announcing the winners of the giveaway this week, I thought it would be fitting to share a delicious soup with you that I stumbled upon from Elana’s Pantry. I love Elana. She has nice recipe ideas, and her recipes actually work!

This soup is (yes) both gluten free and vegan, and adds that delicious Thai style to it, which for me, is marvelous! Read More »

1. Validate your emotional experience. Don’t tell youself that you shouldn’t feel the way you do or that how you feel is stupid.  Talking negatively to yourself will only increase your anxiety because negative self talk is not effective in changing emotions.  Say to yourself, “It’s okay that I’m nervous.  It makes sense.  Despite that, I can do this!” Approaching, not avoiding is what helps us deal with intense negative emotions.  It helps us learn that despite their presence, they are Read More »

A 2008 study provides more evidence that there is a link between celiac disease and gluten. This article in Scientific American reviews the study.

Diabetes and celiac disease: A Genetic Connection
Patients with type 1 diabetes have been known to be more prone to another autoimmune disorder, celiac disease, in which gluten in wheat, rye and barley triggers an immune response that damages the small intestine or gut. Now there’s evidence that the two diseases have a genetic link: they share at least seven chromosome regions.

The discovery, published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine, indicates that both diseases may be triggered by similar genetic and environmental mechanisms, such as certain foods, that cause patients’ immune systems to become overactive and destroy healthy instead of infected tissue. Previous research has found that celiac disease is five to 10 times more common in people with type 1 diabetes than in the general population, an editorial accompanying the study notes.

“These findings suggest common mechanisms causing both celiac and type 1 diabetes – we did not expect to see this very high degree of shared genetic risk factors,” said study co-author David van Heel, a gastrointestinal geneticist at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Van Heel and his colleagues studied genetic material or DNA from about 20,000 people, half of them healthy, nearly half with type 1 diabetes, and 2,000 with celiac disease. The overlapping genetic variants occurred on regions of chromosomes (parts of cells that carry genetic code) that are believed to regulate the gut’s immune system, the BBC notes.

Type 1 diabetes occurs when a person’s immune system mistakenly attacks healthy beta cells in the pancreas that produce the hormone insulin, which is needed to convert glucose into energy. In celiac disease, a similar attack occurs on the small intestine when sufferers eat gluten-rich grains, causing inflammation in the gut that can lead to bloating, abdominal pain, nausea, constipation, diarrhea, fatigue, anemia, headaches, weight loss and failure to thrive in children. Whereas diabetes 1 patients must inject insulin daily to make up for their deficiency, people with celiac disease can avoid damage and symptoms by sticking to a gluten-free diet.

“The finding raises the question of whether eating cereal and other gluten products might trigger type 1 diabetes by altering the function of the gut and its interaction with the pancreas, the authors write. But Robert Goldstein, chief scientific officer of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, which helped fund the study, says it would be premature to assume from this study that gluten is also a diabetes trigger.

“I fear the newspaper headlines in the popular press will read like, ‘Eating wheat will cause type 1 diabetes,’” Goldstein tells us. “The presence or absence of these associations has to be linked to some biological consequence” for a person’s health.

Article Source: http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=diabetes-and-celiac-disease-a-genet-2008-12-11

*UK Study Source: Shared and Distinct Genetic Variants in Type 1 Diabetes and Celiac Disease, New England Journal of Medicine. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMoa0807917

[Editor’s Note: Article reprinted from December, 2008.]

Cha cha cha chorizo!

Sorry, that sounded like a good idea at the time. Like a chorizo party.

I can’t say that I’ve had Mexican Chorizo often, I just know that when I do have it, it’s quite a tasty treat.

Also, it’s a fun word to say (noted, above). It just sounds so zesty and authentic.

Truth be told, normally I cheat and go for the Soy Chorizo at TJ’s. It tastes the same as chorizo, but without all the pork fat.
Since soy isn’t the greatest for our bodies, and you can’t make it mass quantities for a low cost, this recipe is my new option.

I’ve mostly had chorizo with Read More »